India captain MS Dhoni has criticised his side's big-name batsmen after they
came up well short to comprehensively lose the opening Test against
Australia in Melbourne.

Set an imposing 292 to win, India fell apart to finish 169 all out, off 47.5 overs, late on the fourth day.

It's India's fifth consecutive loss in away Tests and conjures memories of their wretched series in England, earlier this year, when they relinquished their top ranking in a 4-0 thrashing.

Sachin Tendulkar was India's top scorer with 73 in the first innings and just 32 in the second.

Dhoni, who now has the task of lifting his team of so-called superstars for next week's second Test in Sydney, believes the tourists have to show more consistency to get back into the four-Test series.

"Our batting flopped in both the innings. We have to show more consistency," Dhoni said.

"We need to score more runs. Otherwise, it would be very difficult for us to win. We need to apply ourselves a lot more and if we do that I have no doubt that we would come back strongly."

It was a miserable effort from the Indian batsmen, with Virender Sehwag (seven), Gautam Gambhir (13), Rahul Dravid (10), VVS Laxman (one) and Virat Kohli (nought) showing little appetite for the fight.

Australia converted a 51-run innings lead into a challenging 291 advantage heading into the fourth innings and India were soon back-pedalling, left at 81 for six by Tendulkar's crucial dismissal in the 27th over.

"We thought if we could get them out for 240 or 250-odd runs, that's a very gettable score, but I felt 290-odd runs was also a score we should have achieved, the wicket was pretty good," Dhoni said.

"It's not like there was too much wear and tear in the wicket.

"You have to give credit to Australia's bowlers for the way they bowled. They kept a nagging line outside the off-stump and that's why they got us.

"Our bowlers brought us back in to the game. We were short by 50-odd runs in the first innings. Their lower-order scored some runs, if we had got them (out) earlier, we would have had 50-60 runs less to chase.

The Australian pace trio of James Pattinson, Peter Siddle and Ben Hilfenhaus shared 19 wickets to restrict India to a two-innings total of 451.

"It was a really hard-fought Test match and we have to be at our best to beat India," said Clarke.

"They've got a lot of class players, their batting order is as strong as any batting order in the world, so for our bowlers to have success I think they deserve a lot of credit.

"It helps when you've got three fast bowlers bowling with great control, good pace. That makes a big difference."

Pattinson, 21, picked up his second man-of-the-match award in only his third Test match after taking match figures of 6-108 and hitting a vital unbeaten 37 in the second innings to frustrate India's efforts.

Australia's three pacemen also contributed significantly with the bat, with Siddle hitting 41 in the first innings and Hilfenhaus chipping in with knocks of 19 and 14 along with Pattinson's two unbeaten knocks.

"The advantage we have at the moment is 'Sidds' and 'Patto' are making runs so they're making up for a few of us like me. I didn't make any runs," Clarke said.

However, Clarke has denied Australia are falling prey to a top-order brittleness, after spectacular batting collapses against South Africa in Cape Town, New Zealand in Hobart and in the second innings against India in Melbourne.

Australia crashed to 27 for four before Ricky Ponting and Mike Hussey restored the second innings with a century partnership.

"If we can knock over such a strong batting lineup like India for the amount of runs we have in this Test match, there's got to be something in the wicket as well," he said.

"It can't just be our batters. We copped a bit of criticism for being four for not many again in the second innings.